Contamination Control

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A study aims to determine how irrigation water that is treated to control microbial activity may affect pathogens on crop surfaces or soil, with the end goal of developing a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) for industry to gauge the reduction in microbial risk from treated water applied preharvest.

A recent study has demonstrated the food safety concern of microplastics contamination in cell-based seafood.

bioMérieux has entered an agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to collaboratively develop tools to combat foodborne pathogens.

Funded by the Center for Produce Safety, a University of Georgia researcher is leveraging cutting-edge technology to improve the standard method for detection of viruses on foods, and then will use the method to study infectious norovirus persistence on berries.

FDA has announced that, thanks to voluntary phase-out by industry, toxic PFAS are no longer being sold by manufacturers for use in food-contact grease-proofing agents in the U.S. FDA also said it is working towards a validated analytical method that would enable the agency to monitor the market for PFAS in food packaging.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) recently published a summary of the six foodborne illness outbreak investigations involving FSIS-regulated products that took place during Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.

In a recently published joint report on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Europe for 2021–2022, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) highlight the progress in reducing AMR in some countries, but warn about repeatedly observed resistance to common antibiotics in Salmonella and Campylobacter.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new guidance for food safety authorities in Europe about the prevention and control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the food supply chain.

Researchers at USDA have developed a thermal pasteurization method based on Radio Frequency technology that effectively reduces the presence of Salmonella in intact eggs, in a fraction of the time required for traditional pasteurization.

A recent meeting report from the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Consultation on Risk Assessment of Food Allergens proposes a process to guide the development and evaluation of allergen derivative exemptions.